You're What I Go To School For
by BreakInCaseOfEmergency
Summary: Jack Spicer is the typical Goth left reeling from loneliness at the absence of his parents, Chase Young is the typical Jock, bullying those around him to hide his own problems. What happens when new girl, Darcie steps into the social circle of Heylin High? Who will end up falling for her, and who will she fall for in return? JACK/OC/CHASE. AU. M for future scenes.
1. Chapter 1

**I'm wondering which will be more popular, this Xiaolin Showdown fic, or my other one. This one is really just a little bit of fun, seeing as I think that their characters fit so well into a High School situation I couldn't help myself from dabbling.**

**I don't own Xiaolin Showdown, but the OC is mine. I hope you all enjoy, follow, favourite, review if you like! Thanks :D**

Beams of soft white light filtered through the glass of Jack's beat up black van, it was painted with his trademark yellow and red swirls on the sides and currently was full of the equipment for his project in college. It had been a long time since he had started making these, and today was assessment day. He was going to pass he knew that much, but seeing as his teacher hated his guts for basically calling him out on his inaccuracies in his lecture.

He could understand that to an extent.

Sighing softly, he stopped the car and rested his head for a few moments on the top of his steering wheel. He was not looking forwards to going in to college today, there were so many other things that he could be doing like focusing on becoming the next Steve Jobs to take over the world with some new craze of technology.

Unfortunately the thing he had made for his assessment was not going to be that thing that changed the world, well…he hoped not. An automatic bed making machine was not going to revolutionise the world but it would allow him to get through the first year of mechanics.

From here even he could see the cheerleaders beginning to do their warm ups and he truly did want to stay in his van without having to walk past them. Ashley was the 'head cheerleader' or whatever you called them and found it satisfying to make his life a misery along with her lackeys who he hadn't bothered to remember the names of. Instead whenever it became needed he assigned them numbers in his head.

As he ran his hand through his hair, Jack let out an aggravated sigh and opened the door to his van, right into the approaching moped.

"Ah shit!" he cursed, jumping out of the car to help the person on the moped he had almost brained because he wasn't looking at what he was doing. Gently he wrapped his hand around their upper arm and tugged them up from the pavement, blocking them from the jeering taunts of the cheerleaders who just had to have witnessed that.

"Are you alright?" he asked "My bad…I wasn't paying attention."

"Ow." The person sniffled, tugging off their helmet and revealing a great shimmering mass of white blonde hair "That stung like a bitch!"

It was then that Jack saw the criss cross of red scrape marks down the side of her cheek, and the drip of purple red blood slipping down her pale skin. Way to start the day off Jack, mutilating a girl. A new girl most likely seeing as he had never seen her before. He would have definitely remembered seeing her before. Deciding it was better to help, instead of just staring, Jack helped her to her feet and sheepishly ruffled his hair.

"Come on I'll uhm, take you to the nurse."

"No no, I'm fine really." She protested, while she took out a small monogrammed handkerchief from her jacket pocket and dabbed at her nose, clearing up the blood "Just, watch where you're going next time." She sighed.

As she slung her bag over her shoulder, Jack caught the scent of vanilla on the air and blinked softly. He still felt bad for what he had done but, if she didn't want to go to the nurse she didn't want to go, it wasn't like he could force her. His door slammed shut and Jack promptly jogged to catch up to her as she made her way through the reception metal detectors towards one of the smaller break areas. It seemed like she didn't like to hang around too many people either.

"Hey uhm, I've not seen you around before." Jack stated, his voice slightly raised "You new or something?"

The girl stopped, and she turned her head slightly to smile at him; "Yeah I am new, I'm trying to find homeroom but uh, I don't have a clue where I'm going. I didn't take anything in on the tour that they gave me a few days ago."

Excellent! Jack thought to himself, his trademark goofy grin appearing on his lips, which seemed to make her smile back in amusement. As he righted his expression, he stuck out his hand and waited for her to give him her timetable, he could at least help her find her homeroom even if she was going to be teased for showing up like that.

"I'll help you find it." He mumbled shyly "Just give me your time table."

"Oh uh, thank you!" she smiled brightly and opened up her satchel bag, on it was written 'The Cambridge Satchel Company' he observed with a raised eyebrow but didn't comment "Here you go."

This was beginning to seem like some crazy movie cliché, she was in his home room as well? Although he was completely fine with that, Jack thought that it was a little creepy. Maybe he could actually make a good friend with this newbie, she wouldn't know about his reputation yet and might just be able to look past it unlike all the other losers who seemed content to ignore him.

"You're in my home room, I'll walk you there if you just give me a minute. I'm going out to smoke, come with me if you want." He hummed, taking out his lighter and flicking it on and off as he headed to one of the smoking areas, which was where he had actually been heading. It was in the same direction as their classroom anyway.

"Sure I'll tag along I guess."

Gently her hand reached out and took the timetable back. They both were wearing gloves, he noticed with a small smirk. Whereas his were leather, and fingerless, hers were white lace. His smirk didn't seem to go unnoticed, and the girl blushed a little bit. Maybe this was his lucky day, God knows he's been due one of them for a while.

Fresh air assaulted his senses when he emerged from the hallway, holding the door open for her as he passed out into the smoking area. It was empty. Probably because everyone knew it was his smoking area therefore decided to use the other one. Producing the crumpled packet from his pocket he held it out to her with a grin, he could see that she hesitated before taking one from the packet.

"Not a smoker huh?" he chuckled softly, as he flipped open his lighter again, striking a flame and lighting his cigarette.

"How did you guess?" she asked with a soft smile, as she gingerly popped the cigarette back into the packet.

"Good call. Gross habit."

"How come you're allowed to smoke then?" she asked with a faux upset gaze, hey, this girl was pretty fun he remarked to himself. Then again, Jack Spicer, Robotic Genius never had much experience with girls, they could all be this fun.

"Because I'm already a gross kinda guy, no point in letting you go downhill with me." He grinned, wiggling his eyebrows at her, which got her to laugh a rather tinkling laugh. It was pleasant, and didn't sound fake at all, which meant she probably wasn't humouring him.

"I'm Darcie, by the way. Darcie Vane." She introduced herself, her smile had a touch of shyness to it which made Jack feel oddly powerful for a change. She was relying on him to actually tell her what to do, who to avoid, where to go. It was nice.

"Jack Spicer." He stated with a nod in her direction, as he took a deep drag from his cigarette, blowing the smoke out into the wind. His whole body relaxed, surrendering to the sweet toxins within the cigarette, opening himself up to the corrupting tar. It was one of the only things that managed to make him feel slightly uplifted – it was the addictive substances he knew but, better smoking than taking other stuff.

"So uhm…what course are you on Jack?"

"I'm doing a course in engineering." He stated with a little roll of his eyes, more like he was teaching the course himself his instructor was so bloody useless "I've got an assignment due in today, period 5, then I get to go home. What did you pick?"

The cigarette burnt down, lower and lower. Jack waited to hear what she had picked, however it did surprise him a little bit when he heard what she had selected. As he threw the butt of the cigarette on the sandy floor, he stubbed it out, not caring his converse were covered in fine grains of brown sand afterwards.

"I'm doing a course in philosophy." Darcie admitted with a shy smile "Nothing as useful as engineering, I can assure you but, I like the subject myself."

As he was about to reply, Jack was interrupted by the electronic 'ding dong' of the college bell sounding, meaning that they had a few minutes to get to their home room. Sighing in slight irritation at that fact, Jack motioned for Darcie to follow him. He would be hard to lose with his bright red hair, and crimson Frankenstein shirt but, just in case he made sure to stick by her side until they were at their room. 10-C. He watched as Darcie pushed down the handle, looked nervously up at him with her large green eyes before opening the door and stepping inside.


	2. Chapter 2

Jack watched as Darcie opened the door to homeroom and resisted the urge to laugh a little bit at the nervous look on her face, she was clearly petrified of what was going to happen. What clique would she be snatched up by? Would she get picked on? Would they do the dreaded speech that meant she had to tell everyone a little bit about herself? Unable to stop his cheeky grin as she clearly waited for him to find his seat before following him, Jack once again revelled in the sensation of being the caretaker of someone in school.

It made him feel good about himself, kind of like he had a use for a time. Instead of just taking up space in class and making smart remarks when he was in his engineering seminars.

Sat down at his usual table, Jack didn't remove anything from his pockets, he merely shrugged off his coat, and set it on the back of his chair. No use wearing that heavy old thing when he was sure to bake in the heat sitting by the window as he was.

As his attention turned back to Darcie, he took the time to notice her small, sweet button nose. Not like the big hawk's hook that some of the other girls had around here. Before she could notice however he shifted his gaze to look where she was looking. Unfortunately, she was looking at something a lot less attractive.

God Chase Young. How he both envied and despised the guy at the same time. He was a role model for all of the men in school in terms of what he could achieve with a simple glare, or a wave of his hand. He was however as thick as shit and it amused the boy that he often failed his exams and his father had to come in and bail him out (unless it was coursework then he bullied some poor geek into doing it for him).

There she was though, looking at him like all the girls did, with a little lust tinged in her eyes and in fact a little admiration. Jack thought that it was something that all girls who attended Heylin High had to go through though, that phase of crushing on Chase. He just hoped that her infatuation would last mere seconds before he told her what the bastard was really like.

"Who is that?" she asked softly, jerking her head in the direction of Chase.

"That, is Chase Young." Jack admitted with a small sigh, placing his head on his hand as he leaned languidly on his desk "He's the lead Quarterback of the football team, got himself all sorts of scholarships already."

"Oh he seems like he's very popular…" Darcie hummed, her gaze broke away from Chase once more, as he laughed particularly loud at something, probably Ashley telling him the fact that Jack had whacked her in the head this morning with his van door.

"Yeah, he's a dick." Jack stated simply.

He turned, and saw Darcie's large green eyes blink at him in confusion. This chick really was naive if she didn't know what she had coming from Chase. He needed to do his 'assessment' to see if she was loose cheerleader material, a nerd, or someone he could put through the wringer for his own entertainment. Jack would ensure that she didn't get hurt though, unsure of why he had taken her under his wing, he merely followed his instincts.

While Darcie struck up a conversation about his engineering project, Jack became utterly focused in explaining what it did to her. He enjoyed her enthusiasm about what he had created, and in fact he found himself agreeing to build her one and install it in her room when he had the spare time. It was something she had always dreamt of having as a child that would make her work a lot easier apparently. Making beds always did suck when you had more important things to be doing, like making a robot out of your mums juicer.

It was then though, while he was distracted that Chase had decided to come over to the pair of them, and expectantly Jack felt a large thump on his back from behind. A rather unsightly sound escaped his lips as he was thrown against the desk that was bolted into the ground, his stomach forced against the unrelenting wood. He coughed softly, trying to regain himself, but that failed even more as Chase then pulled the chair from under him, and he was sent crashing to the floor.

Looking up into Chase's smug little face, Jack glared at the asshole. He was did this just so he would look bad in front of Darcie, the only girl that had actually spoke to him properly in God knows how long.

"Awww still so clumsy Jackie?" he mocked.

Jack stayed silent, he knew that it was better to not bite back in these situations, he would only catch up with him later and give him a beating like you wouldn't believe. Challenging Chase, or making him look like an idiot was not something that should be done.

"And who might you be? Vamperella?" Chase asked with a snicker to Darcie, who, for a moment looked like a deer caught in headlights before she appeared to right herself, and actually smirked. It admittedly looked sexy on her.

"Well after you thump someone in the back and take their chair from out under them, it's quite natural that they would fall over, dipshit." She growled "Yeah, that's me, Vamperella Vane. Pleased to meet you, oh King of the Dickheads."

She all but sneered at Chase, and Jack felt a thump of admiration for Darcie run through him. Chase would never hit a girl so, she seemed to be giving it to him full barrels while she could do for what he had done to him. Darcie had seemed so meek when he first met her, wherever did this side to her come from? Jack didn't mind too much though, and rather contentedly watched from his position on the floor.

"Oh look at this, new girl has a bit of fire in her." Chase laughed, unfortunately this laugh made Darcie's cheeks heat, that much Jack could see, he just hoped she didn't find that sound sexy "What are you going to do, summon some ghosts to get me?"

"Not so much ghosts." Darcie hissed "Demonology is more my thing."

When Chase gripped Darcie's chin, forcing her to look at him despite her being obviously uncomfortable when he did so, Jack stood up swiftly and readied himself to come to her aid if she needed it. Why was he continuing to sit on the floor like an asshole and let her have this done to her? Maybe so that Chase could finally get someone to talk back to him for a change, so that she could take care of this on her own?

"I'll tell you what, little girl. Your world of magic demons isn't real, your music isn't insightful, your clothes aren't hot. Welcome to the real world, time to learn your place in the food chain." He growled, letting go of her chin, snapping her head harshly to one side as he did so, the most he would ever do to hurt a girl.

"I hope you don't mind if I give some of my unreal magic a test run then." She smiled sweetly, as she sat back down in her seat, flipping her hair over her shoulder, Jack noticed she was deliberately not giving Chase the satisfaction of touching her red cheek where he had gripped her "You might want to keep your eyes open over the next few days." Darcie winked.

"Shut up you freak!" Ashley shrieked "Don't talk to my baby that way!"

"It's alright Ashley babe." Chase smirked, it sent a shiver of disgust down Jack's spine at the fact they were using their sickening pet names "I've got this."

The hard flick to her forehead made Darcie gasp softly, and Jack gritted his teeth, his fists clenching.

As soon as Chase's lackeys began to filter away, after he stormed off, Jack saw Darcie beginning to shake with the shock of what happened a few moments ago. Yet he, could not get the grin off his face. That was amazing! She stood up to Chase and made her stand. Something that he couldn't do, but wished now that he had done.

Gently he placed her hand over hers and squeezed softly.

"Thanks." Jack murmured, with a nervous grin.

"No problem." Darcie grinned back shakily, squeezing Jack's hand right back and hoping that not all homerooms were going to be like this. That hope wasn't very strong though.


	3. Chapter 3

It had been a week of trials for Darcie.

Many people were patting her on the back as she walked to her classes because of what she had said to Chase in homeroom. Word travelled fast apparently. Darcie didn't take much delight in being cruel but, she knew that jerks like him needed to know that she would put him down as fast as he would put her down – give them back as good as they gave. It was the only way that they would respect you and possibly leave you alone.

Honestly Darcie had just wanted to breeze through the first week of classes, attract no attention to herself. Obviously that hadn't happened. Chase was only ever around her in homeroom and when she got through that he stayed away from her for the rest of the day mostly. Besides that everything was going well, she'd made friends with a rather larger guy who everyone just called Tubbi, and she had even met up with Jack again on their lunch breaks. He was pretty cute actually, he seemed really keen to help her settle in and she was grateful for that. In fact he had offered to take her out to the shopping center nearby and show her some of the sights.

She'd taken him up on that offer and he was going to meet her at the entrance of the school, and seeing as he had taken to giving her a lift in the mornings to school, she didn't have her moped to worry about picking up and driving to the shopping center.

As Darcie stepped out into the sunlight, she ruffled her long wavy hair. The oversized black shirt she was wearing made her warmer than she would like, but, how could she resist when it went so well with her purple tartan shorts? Her hand fished around in her bag for her sunglasses, and shoved them on, now able to look around for Jack, she spotted his van. As she approached the chunky black van, Darcie grinned and wrapped on his window startling him. It looked like he had been reading a book of some kind and had completely zoned out.

As he opened the door for her to get in, Jack rubbed the tiredness from his eyes. To be honest he had fallen asleep having that nap because he had been up all night working on a project of his. It sounded lame but they were his secret projects, if anyone found out that he had been able to create this technology for this price, everyone would be trying to steal it. Last night though he had made a break through and his all nighter seemed to be worth it massively.

"You alright?" he asked with a grin as Darcie strapped in and shut the door.

"Ah, yeah. Just a little frazzled after school, did you know that the school asked me to do the mural for the football team?" she asked with a smirk "Me of all people!"

"You could always accept and make them look like complete fags."

"Oh wait!" they both said in unison "They already do!"

Both of them punched their fists together and grinned, it was great for Jack to find someone that he could be himself with like this. Before Darcie had come along he had been quite guarded but now she was opening him up, and he was enjoying it immensely. He just hoped that she felt the same, he just couldn't tell with her sometimes, perhaps they both had things that they weren't ready to share just yet.

"How have you been, you look tired?" Darcie asked, her brow furrowing in confusion, the little circles under Jack's eyes made her worry slightly, had he been up all night?

"I'm fine, don't worry. Just had a late night that's all, I had some work that I needed to do on a project and got a little carried away." He smirked, he checked to see her expression as he stopped for a moment or two at a red light. Despite the giant form of his van, Jack actually was a pretty good driver, he'd never had an accident on his insurance.

"You and your projects Jack." She sighed, rolling her eyes a little as she stared straight ahead, wondering where they were exactly heading towards having never been to this shopping center before "Did you get everything done you needed to?"

"Of course, when do I ever not finish something I start?" he asked with a raised eyebrow "Don't worry we're almost there, it's only a few minutes further."

With that Jack turned his attention back to driving and sighed softly, his van always smelled like smoke, mostly because he supposed he smelt like smoke. Whenever Darcie got in it smelt like the vanilla that she was so obsessed with, he had to admit that he liked it – only to himself of course. He didn't want to seem like a creeper by admitting that he liked the way that she smelled…they weren't quite in that place just yet he didn't think.

Exiting the road, he took the turn off and slipped into the car park of the shopping center, it was one of those places that were filled with little niche shops as well as the more main stream which was the only reason why Jack ever came here. They had a great shop called Quiggin's that specialised in steampunk and gothic wear, as well as the more tamer stuff like tshirts and skinny jeans. That was hopefully going to be their first stop.

Darcie had to admit that while Jack had been driving, the set manner of his jaw as he focused was rather attractive. It seemed as if his concentration face made him all the more mature looking as opposed to the goofy grins he so often gave her. Now that they were here she saw that it looked much the same as any other place where you might go shopping, the blank beige colours of the walls and the standard kiddy playground and fast food outlets.

"Last stop." Jack smirked as he opened his door to get out.

Black was not a great colour to be wearing today, the sun was beating down and cracking the flags. Taking off his signature coat, he placed it in the back of his van and waited for Darcie to be ready as well. Jack could see her looking at him a little strange, which made him frown, did he have something wrong with him or something? Oh god he wasn't covered in motor oil or something was he? Sneakily he checked himself, and saw nothing wrong, which made him frown even more but decided not to think anything about it.

It couldn't be that she actually decided to check him out. She'd seen him without his coat on before, he must have just been imagining things.

As both of them entered the shade of the center, Jack noticed that Darcie seemed to be a little bit at a loss to where she wanted to go. This was his time, the time to swoop in and be a hero, showing her where she needed to go and where she could get certain things she would need. He admitted to himself it was kind of lame to actually think of himself as a hero for something that a Google search could do but he, it made him feel better.

"Is there anywhere you want to go?" Darcie asked, her lips curved into a soft smile which was directed Jack's way.

"Actually there's a shop that I think you're going to like." He grinned, pointing to it on the store directory that Darcie had gone over to try and get some idea of all the shops that they had here for her to explore "I go there a lot."

"Alright." She smiled brighter, and nodded her head, her hair bouncing slightly around her shoulders "That will be our first stop."

Darcie had to admit that it felt nice to be hanging around with Jack out of school, since she had moved here she hadn't done much apart from go to classes and do homework. It was good to be able to get out and explore a little bit, especially with Jack – he was her closest friend she'd made since being here. Maybe being out together would help to make them even better friends, that was her hope.

It was most likely going to be a gothic shop she thought and that was fine by her, she needed to see if they had any stockings. She wanted some with odd patterns on, to go with her shorts, she was bored of the same old plain tights all the time. They should be fairly cheap too, seeing as she didn't have a job yet she was going to have to conserve her money something wicked. Fuel here for her moped was hardly cheap, on top of lunches at school and such.

She would rather have nothing at home, than lose face in front of Jack though.

"Oh look Jack!" she grinned, pointing to a vintage hat stall, without really realising she had gripped his upper arm lightly, and was leading him over to the small vintage pop up stall "Hats, I simply love hats."

Without really minding where he was being led, Jack only focused on the soft touch of Darcie's hand on his arm, it made him gulp softly and want to go and find the nearest smoking area. He didn't really like these odd flashes of feelings he got from her, it would just be safer for him to ignore them for now. It would be far more painful to be rejected and lose her altogether if Darcie didn't feel the same as he did.

Grinning Jack held up a top hat, and plonked it on the top of his head, wiggling his eyebrows suggestively;

"Well 'ello there old chap. Spiffing day what what?" he mocked, in an absolutely terrible British accent which had Darcie in stitches without much effort.

As she removed the hat from his head, she ruffled his hair a little bit as she did so.

"I don't think that one really suits you jack, how about a trilby?" Darcie suggested, picking up the black hat and placing it gently on his head, her tongue sticking out in concentration as he tried to position it at the optimal position "Very suave." She purred.

Jack took a look in the mirror and found out that he did in fact look like a complete idiot in all form of hats. As he shook his head he laughed softly and placed the hat back down on the stall, and he picked up a rather large white sunhat with blue bows, and placed it on her head.

"Now that looks stunning on you." Jack teased, as Darcie modelled the hat with her infamous duck pout "Vogue here we come."

Darcie grinned, and placed the top hat back on Jack's head, took out her mobile and snapped a picture of the two of them together. Setting it as her phone background, Darcie showed it to Jack. He thought that it was perhaps one of the best pictures of him that had been taken, for once he didn't look scrawny and odd….he looked quite muscular and like he'd finally lost all that baby pudge.

"Nice." He grinned, as Darcie busied herself putting the hats away again.

There was a stirring beginning in his chest and Jack swiftly shoved it back down, he didn't want to develop any feelings for Darcie, not just yet, for now he was content to simply be friends with her. Sighing, he rubbed his face and fought the ever increasing urge to go for that smoke.


	4. Chapter 4

**Hey readers! Thank you for taking the time to read my fiction, I'd love some feedback on how you think I'm portraying the characters, what you'd like from the story things like that :D**

**Follows and favourites are always welcome :D**

**Enjoy the chapter :3**

Jack was arriving at Darcie's house, not to drop her off or pick her up but because she had invited him around to spend the day with her. It was not very well known but Jack was extremely sceptical of everything to do with the supernatural but Darcie and him were going to actually try and use one of those Ouija boards that everyone kept ranting and raving about. The idea had made him roll his eyes, and initially he said no to the idea.

Of course he wanted to go to Darcie's home but, he wanted it without the dose of creepiness and trickery which would make him believe.

It had been the Darcie puppy dog look every day since she had asked which made him eventually cave in and go through with it. To be honest she was easily twice as excited as he was, but, her excitement was infectious so he was bouncing slightly on the balls of his feet as he waited for her to open the door for him.

He was wearing vintage, tight fitting Levi's with a red and black checked shirt and a black tshirt underneath this. He'd even worn his best aftershave instead of just spraying on the usual Lynx spray and leaving home. It was simple to understand why he was putting so much effort in, but he didn't like the reason at all. Jack had been developing feelings for Darcie since the first week they'd known each other, especially after seeing her out of school at the mall. Yet, feelings were just going to complicate everything, and so he normally pushed them down whenever he was around her.

As the white front door opened for him, and Darcie appeared, Jack grinned softly. Her eyes were wide and her cheeks flushed, she was positively radiating excitement.

"Come in Jack!" she grinned happily "Come in."

Darcie had been burning incense sticks in her home, her mother had normally never allowed it but seeing as she wasn't living here anymore, she didn't think she would mind. Ruffling her hair slightly she shut the door behind Jack and locked it tightly, she didn't want anyone breaking in and scaring the shit out of them in the middle of this. She would be jumpy enough as it is.

"It smells nice in here, what is it?" Jack asked as he shrugged off his grey hoodie.

"Ah it's my Demon's Lust incense sticks." Darcie laughed softly, wiggling her eyebrows in a mock sexual manner because of the name of the incense.

"Trying to attract some sexual lust demon to stalk you then Darc?" Jack teased, as he poked her in the side, making her wiggle into herself because of the strange sensation "A little kinky don't you think?"

"Oh haha Jack, haha." Darcie stuck her tongue out and flipped her hair in a huff, of course, both of them were very aware she was not in a huff at all, they were merely playing around like they normally did whenever they got together.

Darcie's house was very small, more like a flat really, but it was a nice space. It had been decorated with mostly purples and greys in the living room where he sat. Jack crossed his legs and sat down on the floor, eyes boring into the Ouija board in front of him. There was a marked difference between seeing one in real life and seeing one in films and stuff, although he was sure nothing was going to happen, it still gave him the heebies.

Doing what Jack Spicer did best, he made a fake ghostly sound at the board, before waving his hand dismissively at it – so it would know his viewpoint it was a load of shit quite strongly.

"So, Darcie. You going to ask this spirit to start scaring the crap out of Chase for us?" Jack snickered at the thought "It would be a novel experience for sure."

As she appeared around the door frame, holding two glasses and a bottle of vodka in her hands, a bottle of coke was squeezed between her arm and her hip, not having enough hands to carry everything. Jack swiftly stood, and took the coke from her, saving Darcie's aching hip from bruising. She couldn't help but blush though when she felt Jack's hand gently brushing her waist. It was hard to deny for Darcie but, she was getting more attached to Jack than she thought she should do.

She'd just settled into her new home, her new school. She had the problem with Chase, and her mother. The last thing she needed was extra complications with relationships. So for now, she was just going to wait and see what happened – despite the fact she couldn't quite hide her reaction to simple things like that.

"I don't think that they'd do that somehow, they'd probably say that they had better things to do with their afterlife than waste it on Chase." She giggled.

Both of them sat, cross legged on the floor opposite each other, Jack raised an eyebrow at the vodka, and Darcie had the decency to blush.

"Oh come on Jack, you smoke at least 15 a day, an occasional bit of spirit isn't going to hurt." She poked her tongue out "But if you want to abstain I won't hold it against you."

Darcie watched Jack as he pouted softly at her, his lip was wibbling. Then she remembered that he had to drive home and that was probably the reason that he wasn't having any alcohol. She wanted to slap herself upside the head for forgetting something like this but, hopefully she could fix the situation.

"You could always stay over, if you wanted. There's a spare bedroom." She smiled softly "Besides I'm going to have the creeps, it might be good if you could stay over and watch a few Disney films with me afterwards."

"I do not watch Disney films." Jack protested, a little too swiftly.

"Ah I think the lady doth protest too much." Darcie teased.

"Fine! Fine! Pour me some, I'll stay over to watch your sorry ass." Jack fumed, throwing his hands up in the air. Staying over was not going to be helpful to his situation but, he couldn't refuse that offer. It wasn't like they were sleeping in the same room or anything, it would be fine.

After both had their drinks poured, Darcie took a sip and bit her lip nervously, looking at the Ouija board. She had always wanted to do one, having been interested in this immensely since she was a child but her mother had always said no to her having one even in the house! Now though, was a metaphorical middle finger to her mother. Ouija boards, incense and alcohol.

"Are you ready?" she asked Jack, her eyes were wide with excitement and nervousness, as were his.

"Yeah. Let's get ready to speak to nothing for half an hour." Jack mocked, snorting a little bit as he set the drink down on the table beside the board.

Darcie stood up, and turned down the lights until it was a mere candlelight strength. It made her heart pound in excitement to know that they might only be minutes away from talking to a real life spirit! Her house was pretty old, it was a conversion from one of those historical houses into flats inside. Maybe someone would have died here?

"So," she hummed as she knelt back down at the table "Remember, don't take your hand off the planchette before I say the ending to the ritual, okay?" she grinned "Let's get ready to talk to some ghosts."

With a roll of his eyes, Jack kneeled up and placed his hand on the planchette, his lips pursed in disbelief.

"You going to say something?" Jack hissed to Darcie with a raised eyebrow, he almost laughed as she jumped slightly at the sound of his voice. He could see her blush from here even with the lights turned down.

"Oh of course, yes! Uhm…is there anybody in the house with us now? Come forwards into the circle, show us your presence by moving the planchette."

A few seconds later, nothing had happened. Jack sighed and clicked his tongue against the roof of his mouth; "This is a load of shit Darcie I can't believe you talked me into doing this." He stated quietly, hiding his own nerves at the situation behind his disbelief. Just because he didn't believe didn't mean that the concept wasn't creepy!

"Shut up Jack! Why don't you try saying something?" Darcie hissed, gesturing to the board with her head "Ask a question."

"Fine! Fine! Is anyone here? Anybody at all? Come and speak to us, we're bored."

"Jack!" Darcie admonished, he wasn't taking this seriously at all, but both of their expressions dropped, falling into ones of sheer horror when the planchette began to move on its own, moving to the 'Yes' segment of the Ouija board.

Jack let out a small squeaky exhale of air. It had to be Darcie moving the thingy so that he would get freaked out but, there she was looking as scared as he did.

"Okay, uhm…can you tell us your name?" Darcie asked softly, her eyes roved around the room, trying to see if there was any way that she could tell where the spirit was, if in fact you could tell where spirits were. She hoped to God it was not about to be some shit from Insidious going on in here.

The planchette had moved, spelling out a name, or so Darcie thought;

"H-A-N-N-I-B-A-L. Hannibal." She whispered, looking at Jack with large eyes, wondering what they should do now "Y-you aren't doing this are you Jack?"

"The fuck I am I thought you were!" he protested, almost letting go of the planchette before Darcie squeaked and trapped his fingers on there with her own. Then he remembered what she had said, no letting go of the board until she had said what she needed to be said – Jack wasn't sure why he was so freaked out. It was just both of their unconscious minds doing this. Yeah.

"Okay, just, calm down." She whispered softly, gently stroking his hand, before she asked another question "Did you die here, Hannibal? No." Darcie frowned as she saw what the planchette moved to.

"Why are you here then?" Jack asked, his heart beating hard in his chest "D- A-R-C-I-E. Darcie. He's here for you…?"

"J-jack this isn't funny anymore stop moving the pointer." Darcie murmured, she was beginning to feel sick, nausea was swaying softly "I know you don't believe in this sort of thing but it's getting freaky now."

"What do you want from her?" Jack growled softly, he wasn't doing this, but he didn't know why this was happening, was it his desires for her coming across in this situation? Was his subconscious trying to show this to him and get him to act on his desires? "Are you a good guy, or bad guy?"

"B-A-D." Darcie's voice shook softly as she read out what the board said.

Unable to stop her scream when the lightbulb in the overhead light blew sending darkness over the table and the board they were using, Darcie couldn't help but remove her hands from the planchette and she cursed when she did so. No no no! Now she needed to throw this board away, burn it! This wasn't some cheap bit of equipment either.

Jack by this time had vaulted over the table and went straight to the blinds, opening them up so that the sunset streamed through the windows shedding light on the scene.

Unable to hold back his smirk any longer, Jack let it creep onto his face. It was from that alone that Darcie knew.

"You bastard!" she shrieked, flying over to Jack and whacking him repeatedly with a couch cushion.

"Hahaha! You should have seen your face. You were like 'Oooh poor me a ghostie's out to get me.'" Jack mocked, bent over in laughter, even though he was being whacked by a cushion he hardly felt it "The bulb blowing at the same time was just perfect though, excellent timing."

"Ugh Jack." Darcie laughed, shaking her head "What am I going to do with you?"

"Feed me?" he asked, his eyes looked up at her pleadingly.

"Yeah let's get some pizza."


	5. Chapter 5

**Hi readers! I posted a poll up on my profile about what pairing you would be interested in seeing for the story, or if you would be wanting something a little different :)**

**Such as a 'Choose your path' story where both options of pairings would be available for you guys to choose from and see how the story goes with each of them.****  
Anyway, enjoy the chapter, review, follow and favourite if you can :D**

Jack was sitting in the cafeteria, mulling over something that had been playing on his mind for a long time now. The mouldy grey meatloaf was completely unappetising and as a result was being pushed around his plate by his fork as he contemplated what he should do about his feelings for a certain woman. They were just getting stronger and stronger every day now, and he didn't want to act on them in case she rejected him flat out and their relationship changed completely.

He didn't think that he could handle something like that. To go back to how he used to be, lonely and picked on by Chase without anybody to boost him up when he felt bad.

In fact Jack was so engrossed in his thoughts that he barely noticed Darcie come up and seat herself beside him until she placed her hand gently on his shoulder to rouse him from his thoughts. Unable to stop his body from jumping slightly when he felt contact he wasn't expecting, Jack turned his head to smile gently at Darcie.

"Are you okay Jack?" she asked, her brow furrowed as she looked over his face – she could tell that recently he had become worried about something and she just wondered what it could be, she hoped that it wasn't anything relating to what she had done or said "You were well out of it then."

"Ah yeah I'm fine don't worry, I was going over some plans in my head for engineering. You know how I get when I have an idea." He smirked, ruffling his bright red hair with his gloved hand.

"If you're sure, you know you can always talk to me about things if you need to." Darcie felt that she needed to reassure Jack, she wanted to be able to ensure her friend was okay because at times she felt as though he was slipping away from her. They weren't meeting up as often out of school, and he was sometimes very distracted when they did meet up. She didn't know what was wrong with him but, she wanted to know she would help if he needed her to.

"I know." Jack smiled, even if said smile was somewhat strained. He hated not telling Darcie the truth when she was always so open with him.

Chase stalked his way into the canteen and surveyed the people gathered there, there were seats immediately made available for him at the tables with the other jocks but, he paused as he saw those two little goth freaks sitting together at one of the tables nearby. His lip raised in a snarl when he saw Jack, for reasons he couldn't quite describe he had taken to hating the boy even more than normal.

Well, that was a lie, he knew the reason. He just wouldn't admit it in a million years.

Darcie Vane was hot. Despite the awful clothes and thick eye make-up, he couldn't deny that she had a smoking body – he'd seen it after all when him and his guys had peeked in the girls swimming lesson while they were skipping 3rd period Maths. She gave back to him as good as he gave her and that sort of thing was rare in a girl, mostly they just cried and ran off away from him instead of opening their mouths and insulting him right back.

Put it bluntly, she was unattainable and for the man who could have everything he wanted in Heylin High that was a rarity. It made him want to be even crueller to the little bitch, just because he'd made the mistake of making an enemy of her and was now regretting that immensely. The little insect Jack Spicer was close to her, and they'd probably end up fucking which made his teeth grit together even as he thought about it.

Chase shook these thoughts from his mind, and raised his hand, holding his football, and threw it hard into the plates on the table they were eating at. A satisfactory smirk appeared on his lips as the food and drink splattered all over them and Darcie immediately stood up to look at the damage that had been done to her outfit.

"Hey Spicer." Chase growled "That's my favourite ball and you just got food all over it, you gunna clean that up?" he laughed cruelly as Jack's face went bright red with embarrassment, or anger, he didn't really know and didn't really care either.

Meanwhile, Darcie was looking at her cream and blue ribbon corset she had been wearing, that now had pepsi and ketchup spilt all over it. Tears were threatening to overfill her eyes. This was a present from her mother! It meant so much to her and now…now it was ruined! She would not let Chase see her cry though, she would take her anger, and turn it into something that would hopefully hurt him as much as he was hurt her right now.

Languidly, she took the ball from Jack, and picked up the metal canteen knife giving Chase a sickly smile, she plunged the knife into his 'favourite ball' and ripped a large unfixable hole into it. As she squeezed the air out, she looked at her work and smirked, before throwing it back to Chase.

"There you go Chase, have that back." She stated in a bored tone.

"Awwww ickle Darcie looks like she's pissed that her freaky goth clothes are all dirty." Chase taunted earning a snicker from the rest of the guys stood behind him "Why don't you go get changed into your swimsuit Vane, too bad you hide your smoking body behind all that fucking lace and idotic styling. Maybe you wouldn't be half bad if you just…"

"Maybe you wouldn't be too bad either Chase if you just shut your damn mouth and took out the football jammed up your ass." She hissed in anger.

Chase's eyes widened a little bit and he grinned, that was the Darcie that he knew and loved, the one that bit back and gave him a challenge. She was fiery, and he liked that. It was just too bad that now they were on separate sides of the social circle. Jack just stared at the two sparring with their words and couldn't help but feel a great glimmer of attraction for Darcie, she was standing up for what she thought was right, and did so even if it was going to get her in even more trouble from Chase. He was proud of what she was doing to show the righteous bastard that he wasn't the only person who mattered in this canteen.

"Damn girl, you're almost as cruel as me. Maybe I was wrong about you." Chase chuckled, before he pointed to Jack "Go on, lay into your little girlfriend here. It'll feel amazing."

"Ugh, Chase how about you take your foul smelling, clap riddled self away from our table before we begin to catch your stupid." Darcie dismissed Chase with a wave of her hand, before frowning and getting up from her seat "Better yet, we might as well get out of here altogether, just hearing one more conversation about what you and 'Ashley baby' got up to last night might just kill 50% of my brain cells in one go."

With a roll of her eyes, Darcie picked up her bag, and her tray, before walking out of the canteen, disposing of her stuff properly like she was supposed to. Jack grinned at her, and gave the guys the finger, as he followed suit and marched after Darcie to catch up to her. He could tell that she was just bursting with anger and Jack didn't have a clue about how to calm her down after she exploded so badly at Chase.

She slammed open the doors to the smoking area they normally frequented, and Darcie let out a sheer roar of anger, kicking the stone shelter.

"Hey, hey Darcie!" Jack gasped, holding her by her upper arms so that she would stop ranting and raving and swearing about what had happened in the canteen "Darcie it's okay." He murmured, and he pulled her into his body for a gentle hug, trying to get her to calm down so that she could tell him what the matter was; "What's wrong?"

"I'm just…" she gasped, took in deep breath after deep breath to calm herself down until she could speak properly "I'm sorry. I know I shouldn't give it back to him I just can't help it when he just goes and does that for no good reason."

"It's okay Darcie. Nobody thinks any less of you, in fact, everyone loves you for speaking up for yourself." Jack reassured her, placing a hand on her cheek to rub just under her eye, his thumb removed the tears that had gathered there "Come on let's go and get yourself cleaned up, maybe then you'll finally take my advice and start planning with me for when we can finally get him back for all of this shit he puts us through."

As they spoke, Jack took out a cigarette and lit it, he took a drag of the sweet stick before allowing the chemicals to relax his body. To his surprise, Darcie took the cigarette out of his mouth and sampled a drag herself. It made her cough softly, to his amusement, but the second was much smoother. His eyebrow raised in a silent question to her, and she had the decency to blush softly at her action.

"Sorry…I just needed a little bit." She whispered "All better now!" she laughed, running her hand through her hair "You have any idea how to get ketchup out of satin?" Darcie asked with a frown.

While Jack and Darcie were busy cleaning themselves up after what had happened, Chase had taken his seat at his normal table in the canteen. A small frown on his features as Ashley draped herself around him, rubbed at his shoulders and tried to reassure him that nothing bad was going to happen as a result of the little bit of teasing that he had done just before.

Darcie had looked so…wounded when he had ruined her corset and he couldn't help but feel a small stone of guilt settle in his stomach. Normally he would have had a smile on his face the rest of the day because of that, the look she had given him when she had gotten wound up was what he loved most about when he got under her skin. This felt different though, and he didn't understand why. A growl of frustration escaped him, which Ashley completely misunderstood for one of sexual pleasure at her massage, and she pounced on his lips in a fierce kiss. Chase shoved the sensation down and indulged in the pleasure's such things gave him, like Ashley, and the camaraderie of his fellow footballers.


	6. Chapter 6

After the month or so that Darcie had been attending Heylin High, she was amazed that she was able to carry on coming into school. Even more amazed that she hadn't got a criminal record for trying to do Chase Young in he had been so incredibly cruel to her. Unable to stop her heavy sigh, Darcie continued along the corridor of the fitness center she had decided to spend some time in, as she headed towards the pool.

Swimming always helped her to calm down, clear her head.

Her hands deftly pulled her hair into a ponytail so that it wouldn't stick around her head as she swam, as dipped her feet into the warm water of the pool. It always made her feel like she'd just had an amazing massage when she came out of the heated pool, her worries just seemed to melt away. The membership she had paid for the gym was well worth it.

Sighing contentedly as she began to kick her legs out, holding her float to her chest. She wasn't here to exercise, she was here to be able to have a think about the situation that she had found herself in. It was like her hormones had decided to wake up and cause complete havoc all at the same time. She seemed to be finding every guy she came across attractive…well, she wouldn't quite go that far, she admitted with a wry smile.

Just two.

Darcie had developed feelings for Jack Spicer, her best friend here of all people! She kicked herself all the time for that, she didn't want to ruin what they had together, to take it past that barrier and then to find out that he didn't feel the same. Darcie knew that she wouldn't be able to take it. Each time she saw him though, her heart beat wildly and she knew that it was going to take a long time for her to get over these feelings.

Not only him but, the one that irritated her the most was the feelings she had developed for Chase Young. They were quite different to the ones she felt for Jack, there were feelings behind those ones. These were just sheer physical attraction because how could she like him for anything but? He had constantly been a jerk to her. A Beautiful Bastard, she commented with a smirk on her lips. Yet, when she saw his long, thick mane of black green hair, and the elegant curve of his lips she couldn't help the feelings that happened.

Neither of them she could act on, but it was hard for her to move on from them all the same. It was for the best when it came to both of them. To save her friendship, and to avoid herself getting hurt.

Absent mindedly she kicked her legs, swimming up and down the pool as she thought about what she was going to do. Should she try and move school to avoid the verbal beatings that was given almost every day? It would show it was getting to her but, with so many other things going on in her life, Darcie did not need the added aggravation. Her eyes shut tightly, she sucked up all the emotion she had let loose as she heard the door to the swimming pool open.

Chase had been at the party across campus to celebrate his success with one of his scholarship games, but had quickly grown bored of the alcohol, loud music and incessant bitching from all corners. Which was strange for him, normally that would have been a good time to show off his prowess and pick on some losers passing by but even that hadn't picked him up. The effort of Ashley to cheer him, by flashing, was not appreciated as she also showed the whole of the football team at the same time. Sometimes the girl was so fucking braindead, he swore in his head as he stalked his way towards the sports center – he wanted to get away for a while and maybe get a chance to think about what was screwing his head around so much.

As he pushed open the door to the swimming pool, Chase raised an eyebrow as he saw a chick swimming in the water, he would have thought everyone would have been in the party or would have gone home by now. He gave a cough, to let them know that he was there, and was so surprised when he saw who it was. Darcie Vane. Goddamn it the one person that he didn't want to see here while he tried to sort his head out. From the look on her face when she turned around, she was thinking the exact same thing.

"I thought you would have been at your party Chase." Darcie sighed, as she swam towards the exit steps of the pool "I'll leave you alone."

"No Vane, wait up." Chase demanded as he jogged around to where she was getting out the pool, trying in vain not to look at her body as she emerged from the water, but, it was only a very minimal look in the end.

"What is it?" she asked, her large green eyes were tinged with confusion, and Chase couldn't blame her, he didn't even know why he had called her over to speak to her either.

"I just uh…think we should talk..." he offered with a rather nervous grimace of a smile on his lips, rubbing her back of her neck Darcie bit her lip, but nodded, maybe this would be a chance for them to actually sort this thing out. Maybe he would stop treating her the way that he did.

"Okay." Darcie smiled gently, and moved over to some of the seating area's after grabbing her large fluffy towel that she had left on the seat beforehand.

With expectant eyes she waited for Chase to say something, and as he sat down next to her, reeking slightly of beer and smoke, Darcie thought this might be a result of some drunken mistake that he would regret in the morning. She wouldn't tell anyone about it though, she wasn't that type of person to do that.

The silence grew and grew until she broke it, her lip worried between her teeth.

"Why do you do it Chase?" Darcie asked, rubbing her hand up and down her arm underneath the towel "Why do you have to treat me like that, I know if give back as good as you give me but I wouldn't say any of those things if you didn't treat me like that in the first place."

"I know it's wrong." He admitted, his head in his hands "And I'm sorry that I did it in the first place, and that I keep doing it to you but there's nothing to be done now about it. I have to keep doing it."

"But why Chase? Why do you have to? Why do you not just stop?"

"You don't know what it's like!" He growled, turning to Darcie, his eyes were alight with anger and sheer frustration "The pressure on me by the rest of my team, if I just stopped now, I might as well just give up my position right now, and I can't do that!"

A shot of adrenaline rushed through Darcie's body when Chase had turned to her like that, it made her heart beat wildly which of course was the excuse she was using to explain away the faint blush on her cheeks at the intense expression on his features. Chase was looking at her with such passion in his gaze, even though it wasn't at her in particular, Darcie took a deep breath and once again shoved that attraction down.

"Alright…I get that." Darcie sighed softly "But you don't have to take it so far…like that day in the cafeteria last week?"

"I know Darcie, I know." Chase sighed, resigned. That day still made his stomach feel cold and empty, the face that she had made when she had her corset ruined was the worst part. It was different from all the other times when she would simply get angry, not get upset at what he had done.

"That corset was a gift from my mum, I don't see her too much anymore that's why…that's why I got so upset about it." She stated with a nervous smile, hoping that offering this information wasn't about to come back and bite her later on, but there was something about Chase that made her think he was deadly serious. He wasn't going to tell anyone about what happened now.

"I'm sorry Darcie, I really am."

Gently, he laid his hand on her shoulder and squeezed it gently, noting that she was shivering slightly with cold even despite the fluffy towel wrapped around her. Chase decided that he had better let her go and get changed but, he didn't want to, he wanted to hold onto this moment because he didn't know when he'd get to talk to her like this again. The soft smile that she gave him as a response to his reassurances made his heart pound softly, and Chase realised he wanted to see her make that expression more than the ones he currently made her pull whenever he was around.

"Thanks, Chase." She murmured, a little pink haze on her cheeks.

"Could I uh, ask a favour?"

"Of course." Darcie stated, blinking slightly in surprise.

"I need…some help in English." Chase admitted, his cheeks were pink but he turned away so that she wouldn't have to see how embarrassed he was about his substandard skills "I'm two grades below the pass I need for the scholarships and I need to get my grades up, you know, maybe if you helped me out. I could stop picking on you so much."

Darcie couldn't help but let a soft smile appear on her lips, it was so sweet his question she couldn't help but grin and hug her arms around her chest tighter under the towel.

"I'm sure I can find the time to help you out." She grinned cheekily "How about I meet you in the library tomorrow, around 4:30, that way it'll be empty?"

"Sounds good." He agreed, still not meeting her gaze "See you then Vane."

"See you then."

As she got up from the seat, and Chase felt her presence leave the room, he let out a large sigh he didn't even know he had been holding in. It was impossible. There was no way the thing that could have him so tweaked out of sorts was her. No way. Yet, all the evidence seemed to be pointing to the contrary, so much so he'd even admitted he needed help with something so easy as English to her. A scowl appeared on his features as he got up from his seat, ready to walk home on his own, with nothing but his thoughts.


End file.
